Team and Family Profiles

Education:

Hometown:

Nashville, Tennessee

Fun Fact:

I studied in Barcelona my whole junior year of college.

Years Teaching:

1

Q&A with William Flautt

What is possible for your students? One of the journal prompts my students like to write about is “What would you do if you had $1 million?” Instead of just spending it or saving it for themselves, every student says they would donate it to charity or give it to people who need the money. My students will change the immediate world around them by caring about more than just themselves.

How are your students pushing toward that possibility?My advisory boys are in the middle of setting up a restorative circle with some police officers with the goal of preventing the next national news police story to be set in San Antonio. And the best part – I just started with a few questions like “What is the problem?” and “What can we do to solve it?” The kids decided on 1) the restorative circle and 2) how to reach out to the officers (they typed a letter and signed it).

What makes your students unique?I genuinely enjoy my students’ company, and I laugh with them every day! Few adults I know fit into those categories simultaneously.

How are you integrating your students’ culture/identity into your class?One of my favorite lessons was a look at the Mexican Repatriation Act of 1929. We were able to have a really meaningful discussion about the importance of remembering and reading about our national history – especially the parts of it that don’t necessarily appear in textbooks. It’s worth Googling, for sure.

Why is this important? If you can’t connect with our students and the flurry of identities they have inside themselves, it doesn’t matter what you try to teach them.